going beyond today because sustainability drives our tomorrow

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership – why I am now starting University

The Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences launches their bachelor programme “Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership” for the first time and I will be one of the “Teampreneurs” making up the first group ever to study a degree like this in a German university.

It has been 5 years since I left school, admittedly not in the most glorious way possible. Now I’ll actually start studying and here is why.

The programme initiated by Professor Michael Vogel really intrigued me. I was considering what options I had as I wanted to expand my academic capabilities and was curious for a new challenge that was both interesting and would also really call upon myself to develop and grow. I considered a few options, mostly economics degrees focusing on or near the sphere of political economy, a field I always found very interesting and that friends often told me would indeed be a good fit for me.

But during the same time, my mother showed me a newspaper article for a new programme being introduced in Bremerhaven, a city on Germany’s North Sea coast with one of Europe’s largest harbours, the second city next to the city of Bremen to make up the state of Bremen and not much more than 30 minutes by train form my current home.

The article pointed out that this degree program was based on the Finnish “team academy” format and I was hooked immediately. The idea behind it, is that all students will be divided into groups, start a company together and use this as a the basis for what to learn and which books to read. Beyond English, there are no taught classes, no exams. (And I do believe English won’t be an obstacle for me, considering it has become my primary language to think and take notes etc)

We will be trying different business ideas and try to fulfill different challenges, starting with a lean startup challenge – after all, we aren’t brining any money to the table.

To me, all this sounded perfect. A bachelors degree for following my natural passion of entrepreneurship and getting to do just that with a group of amazing people? I was instantly falling in love with that idea.

So I did what every person in my position would do, applied and was accepted. I did have a few roadblocks to solve, but on my 25th Birthday I gifted myself the honour of Immatrikulation and dropped of my documents in person, before heading to a dinner with my family.

Since applying I had the opportunity to meet a few of my fellow teampreneurs and I can’t stress enough how happy I am about spending the next three years with those that I already met. Now it is just one month until our inaugural week and I am getting more and more excited.

Once we get started, rest assured I will write more about the things we’ll be up to. Our ideas are already piling up.